Agent hopes ‘ lucky 8’ lures a buyer

Know­ing that num­bers have al­ways played an im­por­tant role in China, a Man­hat­tan town­house is be­ing listed at $28.888 mil­lion in hopes of at­tract­ing a Chi­nese buyer as the num­ber 8 has long been con­sid­ered the luck­i­est num­ber in Chi­nese cul­ture.

“We have al­ready had in­quiries,” said Wil­liam Stafford, who with his col­league Ryan Ser­hant of Nest Seek­ers In­ter­na­tional, was re­cently hired as the list­ing agents for the Up­per East Side town­house on 64th Street be­tween Park and Madi­son av­enues. “Even num­bers are very im­por­tant to the Chi­nese and this has cer­tainly grabbed at­ten­tion,” added Stafford.

The 8,200-square-foot prop­erty has 12 bed­rooms and was pur­chased in the 1990s by Yo­ram Koby, ac­cord­ing to a Wall Street Jour­nal re­port. The news­pa­per said the house has been on and off the mar­ket since 2005 when it was listed for $9.5 mil­lion. Koby has ren­o­vated the prop­erty, and oc­cu­pies one of four apart­ments in the house that was built around 1904. He said he is sell­ing be­cause he wants to move to Florida, ac­cord­ing to the Jour­nal.

The house had been listed for $26 mil­lion. Stafford said the price was raised to $28.888 mil­lion be­cause “we need some wig­gle room in the ne­go­ti­a­tions.”

He said the Chi­nese have be­come very im­por­tant par­tic­i­pants in high-end res­i­den­tial real es­tate in New York City, par­tic­u­larly in Man­hat­tan. “In 2015, 70 per­cent of all in­vest­ments in Man­hat­tan were made by the Chi­nese or buy­ers of Asian de­scent,” Stafford said.

He said he has worked with Chi­nese buy­ers: “They want south-fac­ing build­ings to get more sun. They also don’t want the prop­erty to be on a block that is close to a ceme­tery or church.”

PRO­VIDED TO CHINA DAILY

This town­house on East 64th Street in Man­hat­tan is listed for $28.888 mil­lion in hopes of at­tract­ing a Chi­nese buyer.